Hello everyone at Signs 101 and thank you for the warm welcome and positive comments. To all of my current customers - a big thank you for trusting me with your raster to vector conversion needs.
A little background about what I do, won't do, or cannot do and how I do it...
HOW I DO IT
I do every conversion myself. I have no outside help whatsoever. I use Illustrator exclusively with nothing more than the pen tool and a mouse. I rarely use the auto-tracing tool. If it was that easy and resulted in great output, I would not offer this service because no one would need it.
I have tested the various autotracing tools available. Each version of Illustrator and Corel improves on their auto-tracing and it makes me nervous every time they do so. But they often don't give you the best results. Corners are not always sharp and curves can be a bit bumpy. You also can get a vector file with excessive points and control points that needs cleaned up which can be time consuming. I do what no tracing software can - make human decisions (logic) on how something should look. Also, many times your customers won't give you crisp, camera ready art that can be autotraced without a lot of clean up. Their webpage, an old business card, or a Xeroxed copy is all you have to work from.
Have I ever used auto-tracing for a customer? Yes maybe 1-2% of the time when it makes sense - but I will always inform them beforehand and get their approval.
WON'T OR CANNOT DO
The responsibility of whether or not you can use a logo/artwork falls into the hands of you the customer.
- I won't trace cartoon characters - unless you are working for Warner Brothers, Disney, Marvel, etc. you likely don't have a right to those images - I can only assume as such and if you are, they would supply you with the proper artwork. So no Calvin's, Mickey's, Snoopy's and such.
- If your artwork has a watermark on it (like all of the clipart at Fred Weiss' site) I will not trace those - besides they can often be bought for less than what I would charge to trace it. Please support the owner of the image and pay for it.
- I am not a miracle worker. Although I have converted many images that were pretty small and rough, I can only trace what I see. I turn down many jobs that are very complex where the low quality/resolution of the file does not have enough detail for me to tell what shapes are supposed to look like. At low resolution, a small shape may be nothing more than a few pixels and I have no way of telling if that shape is round, square; made up of a smooth curve, a sharp corner, etc. If I have no frame of reference, then there is nothing I can compare the image with to make sure my conversion is correct. I would rather turn down an job and maybe force the customer to get better artwork, rather than attempt something that disappoints them.
- I do not convert photos into vector files. Please do not ask me to convert a picture of your car, dog, uncle, a plate of spaghetti, the ocean, etc. (these were actual requests). It is possible to create vector files of photos and the aforementioned, but not for $6, $10, $20. It is not my specialty.
WHAT TO EXPECT
- An eps or ai file saved down to a low version number (3, 4 or 6) so that you can either open or import into your software.
- Most jobs are completed overnight. I appreciate knowing if you are not in a rush, this allows me to prioritize the jobs.
- I usually reply to requests within an hour or two, but being a one man show has it's drawbacks. I have a house and family to take care of. I must shower, mow the lawn, play with the kids, pay bills, put up shelves, pick up after the kids, eat, go to the movies, SLEEP, water the flowers, watch TV, PAY ATTENTION TO MY WIFE, etc, etc, and..... be The Vector Doctor. I am on Ohio time and I have customers in Hawaii, the West Coast, Australia, England. So I may not always reply quickly. If it is urgent - call me and tell me if it is urgent 614-208-5331. Or if you send me a job in the evening, you may not get a reply till the next day and the job could be delayed up to 24 hours.
- If you do not receive the file or a reply.... the email never made it to me for whatever reason, there was some emergency or I am dead
OTHER SERVICE:
- If your customer has sent you a vector file that is too complex to cut (overlaps, stroked lines, multiple intersecting shapes for instance) and you want it to be vinyl ready, I can simplify it for you.
